Pres. Buhari’s nominee for NERC chairman rejects the appointment..

Prof. Akintunde Akinwande nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari as the Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) have rejected the nomination.

A reliable source said Akinwande turned down the nomination “because he was not consulted before the nomination was made”.
In a list of nominees circulated by the Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, records of date of birth, qualification, specialisation, experience and certificate of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) were missing in Akinwande’s column.

Of the seven nominees for the board appointment, only Akinwande had no records of his credentials and this stalled the screening of other nominees.

The source added that Akinwande was doing a project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“We also learnt that enough consultation was not made before the man was nominated. We were informed that the nominee may have turned down his nomination,” the source said.

The source added that Akinwande also failed to avail himself to the Department of State Services (DSS) for security checks.

Chairman of the Committee Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe told reporters that there was no way the screening could go on in the absence of the chairman-designate.

Regrettably, when members of the committee assembled to screen the nominees made by President Muhammadu Buhari, we were told that the chairman designate was unavoidably absent. The Presidential liaison who brought the nominees informed us that the chairman was unavoidably absent.

He noted that since the nomination was made over three months ago, the Presidency should have known whether the chairman designate would attend the screening or noting that “the commission is vital and cannot function without a chairman”.

Abaribe, who assured that the committee was ready to screen the nominees, added: “We cannot screen them until we have a formal communication from the Presidency”.